Conflicting reports this morning on the status of free agent third baseman Mike Lowell in the Boston Globe this morning. While Buster Olney is reporting that he has “heard” that Lowell is close to signing the Red Sox 3 year offer, there’s also word from Nick Cafardo that Lowell may have a team willing to offer him a fourth year “in his back pocket”. Lowell doesn’t make sense as a 4-year signee for anyone, including the Red Sox. He’s probably going to have a serious regression next year anyways, but given that the Sox would prefer to use bullets like Coco Crisp to acquire pitching, he’s a good enough stopgap until a long-term solution is groomed/discovered.

Meanwhile over at the Capulet’s, it appears that free agent reliever Mariano Rivera has come to his senses and realized that three-years, $45M is far and away the best offer he’s going to get this year. Why he didn’t get ink marks on his shirt sleeves while signing this offer right as it came off the presses we’ll never know, but at least this keeps him in a Yankee uniform through the likely end of his career (he’ll be 41 when the deal expires). It’ll be seen as a waste of money in the third year when the Yankees are paying the shell of the greatest reliever of all time $15M to mop up, but the money won’t adversely affect the Yankees ability to sign other talent, so it doesn’t really matter in the long run. Mo shouldn’t ever pitch for another team anyways – it’d just be wrong.